Wikibooks:Render as PNG

This page contains useful information about the Wikibooks project.
While this is not a listing of rules or policies, it contains information about an important Wikibooks process, custom etc. This page should be helpful to our users; please let us know if it is not.

Pages marked with the template {{RenderPNG}} are specifically designated by the author as pages that benefit from being rendered as PNG. This is a preference only, and is certainly not required. Pages marked with this category often contain large numbers of mathematical formulae, or else several complicated (and difficult to render) formulae for which PNG formatting is beneficial. Note that PNG rendering takes more time to download, and can bog down slow internet connections.

Clicking on the "Math" tab in the Special:Preferences page brings up a list of options concerning the rendering of mathematical formulae. Here is a sample list of options:

Always render PNG

HTML if very simple or else PNG

HTML if possible or else PNG

Leave it as TeX (for text browsers)

Recommended for modern browsers

MathML if possible (experimental)

This template recommends that users select the first option, "Always render PNG", to force all equations into PNG format, and not be displayed in HTML format.

If the user is in any of the 3 last modes ("Leave it as TeX", "Recommended for modern browsers", or "MathML if possible"), this recommendation can probably be ignored (or should be ignored, in the case of a text-only browser).

According to meta:Help:Formula, the formula author can force a function to be rendered as PNG when the user is in mode "HTML if possible", or "HTML if very Simple" by adding the sequence " \,\! " (back-slash, comma, back-slash, exclamation point). This sequence is considered to be complex enough that the HTML renderer cannot display it, even though it doesn't do anything (a space followed by a negative space). This sequence can be added onto the end of any formula that the author wants to force as PNG.

Warning: Forcing people to see everything as PNG can be rude, especially to users on a low-speed connection, or on pages with large numbers of PNG images. This technique should be used sparingly, and the RenderPNG template should be used instead, as a suggestion.